1) The new layout is very white. It is very hard to see the separation between different posts.
2) The new layout doesn't color-code code blocks anymore.
3) The link "Tips for Posting Messages" do show code as color-coded. It also fails to make use of for the example code that is then shown formatted - so the input data doesn't have indented text, but after add of the "pre" tags, indents magically appears.
4) Why does every new post ask for the users name? To make sure that even more people will make lots of posts using faked names - sometimes even switching between two names and one-man Q/A sessions.
5) This forum really do need real, registered, accounts. Where the posters name gets permanently locked, making sure that however many aliases someone creates they are still unable to impersonate someone else. The ability to impersonate or use whatever random aliases is creating lots of extra rude posts.
Hi Per and Erik,
Thanks for your feedback. We're looking at the color and "new post" issues.
Any time a significant change is made to an application of this size and complexity, there will be issues. We perform extensive internal testing, and gather and integrate feedback from internal users for style and usability, but ultimately this forum is here for you, our users. Your suggestions are not falling on deaf ears.
As always, feel free to email webmaster@keil.com directly with any issues, and we will attempt to address them.
Dave Lively Keil.com Webmaster
Not sure if we have had it before, but I notice we can use numbered lists:
And bulleted lists:
It wouldn't hurt if < code> and < tt> also worked, given the amount of source code that are posted on this forum. < pre> just isn't intuitive for people who happens to know the prevous two alternatives. < ins> and < del> woudln't hurt either.
This forum really do need real, registered, accounts. If possible, this should also accompany, "Report Abuse" or "Report spam", as we everyday see a new post by "Sophia Zhu".
Hi Per,
I'll add <code> and <tt> to the CSS declarations so that they will also render appropriately. I hope you can see colours and borders on the forum posts now - a few posts weren't rendering the styles for some reason and thus appearing "all white", but this was fixed our end with a hard refresh.
I've also fixed the width issue with columns in posts so that the info column on left will now always be narrow. And a couple of other minor things have been fixed. The new CSS is not yet uploaded but will be some time today.
Thanks for all your feedback! We will continue to try to fix bugs and rendering issues with the refreshed design as soon as we spot them (or have them drawn to our attention).
Cheers,
Rik Abel (front-end developer)
Thank you. Yes, I see much more color coding now than I did yesterday.
I'll have to get used to looking at the color of the left column for newer posts, but that shouldn't be an issue :)
Just a note - an issue that have been for a long time now.
Both individual posts and the thread list claims to show times in GMT.
They do not.
My previous post was made 7:59 GMT, or 9:59 local time (I'm at +2:00 right now because of daylight savings).
Inside the thread, the post claims 8:59 GMT. So 1 hour too much. Maybe western european summer time is used despite the text claiming GMT. Like if the server was hosted in UK.
The thread on the other hand claims that the last post was made 15:59 GMT. So 8 hours too much compared to the claimed GMT. Like it actually used China Standard Time instead of GMT.
OK we will look into that, too. I also notice the country flags don't seem to be working properly... And I will try to fix the textarea for new posts so that it isn't tiny font size (this is an inline style in template so can't override with my CSS file...)
I don't believe that the country flags have ever worked - have they?
Is this merely a restyling exercise (more like ARM coporate colours), or can we look forward to some major functional fixes & enhancements...?
There are many more features that can be added. Like..."Watch this Thread" feature. By adding a thread to watch list, a person gets mail updates whenever there is any new post on that thread. User ratings can also be a feature (which will obviously require registration).
Also, does displaying (not displaying) the Country Flag matter?
Is this merely a restyling exercise (more like ARM coporate colours) if keil is seriously considering following ARM, then they should also think of resytling (adding) other features.
Hi guys,
There is more to come, i.e. this is not a mere restyling exercise - the restyling also involved the consolidation of various different backend templating systems etc which was necessary before we can move forward with new functionality and further improvements to design/layout of important pages.
There are definite plans to move to a new, much more full-featured forum system in the not too distant future which will hopefully address many of the issues around missing/buggy functionality - proper registration, watched threads, etc.
If it's there, it should work.
Better to remove it altogether than having a known-dead feature just hanging around!
Agreed, there's a lot more fumdamental things than coutry flags (or even ratings & watches) that really need fixing first...
Maybe it is my computer or Firefox but I noticed that the on my wide screen the grey area left and right of the forum content flickers with every mouse scroll, very annoying. When I zoom in I see a grid of very fine 45° lines being updated on every scroll. When I zoom out until the text becomes uncomfortable to read the effect disappears, so this could be some kind of aliasing with screen resolution. Please don't give me a headache and make this a uniform gray.
The grey on the sides isn't pure grey but 50% white and 50% darker grey pixels.
If the web browser scrolls an odd number of pixels, then the grey and the white pixels will switch place. And that is visible as flicker.
There are many more features that can be added.
why worry about adding features as long as everyone have to look down the list to see how far (s)he has seen all posts.
get a "no new post sice last visit" marker going and forget about the rest till that is fixed